For many, it is a day that promises nothing good: Friday the 13th – superstitious people also avoid booking flights on this day out of fear of bad luck, and this travel behavior can indeed bring good luck to non-superstitious people, for example in terms of cheap flight tickets. We will explain why this is the case below:

That Friday the 13th brings bad luck influences many life decisions of superstitious people and thus also their travel behavior: The industry has even adapted to this, and for example, there is often no row 13 on airplanes and no room 13 or no floor 13 in hotels – and in hospitals, there is usually no room 13.

But do fewer people fly on a Friday the 13th? The travel search engine Kayak took a closer look at flight data and wanted to find out how much reality there is in the superstition surrounding Friday the 13th. And indeed: The search volume from German travelers for flights was lower on Friday, September 13, 2024, than on other Fridays of the year. There were even an average of 7 percent fewer searches on this September Friday compared to other Fridays.

It looks similar in other countries as well: In Spain, the search volume for this Friday decreased by 12 percent, while in the UK, 14 percent fewer people searched for flights on September 13.

Those who do not believe in misfortune on this supposed day of bad luck are likely to have a lot of luck when buying flight tickets, because the chances of finding bargains on a Friday the 13th are quite high: For the upcoming weekend after such a Friday, economy flights from Germany are an average of 13 percent cheaper than on other Fridays, according to Kayak.

In Japan, on the other hand, people would be unlucky in their bargain hunting, as for the Japanese, the number 13, according to local superstition, brings good luck.